Whatever This Is
by Le Cygne Noir
Summary: Teenagers, by nature, have their awkward phases. Some...just find themselves tripping over those particular hurdles a bit late. Tenjoin Asuka is one of those unlucky teenagers. Fortunately...she has the perfect test subject. [ManjoumexAsuka]


It's not mine, I don't claim it. Simple, short, and to the point.

* * *

She appraised the homework in front of her with a pejorative glare, pen twirling idly in her hand. It was a rare occasion when Tenjoin Asuka could not conduct her everyday routine; far be it from her to let something go undone for too long -- she'd wind up like Juudai, and as dearly as she loved her friend it was entirely too bad an idea to let herself become _too_ similar. Giving an uncharacteristically begrudging growl, she tossed the pen down on the desk and pushed her chair back, standing to stretch her legs out.

Her eyes wandered until they met with the window -- promptly and reflexively narrowing in answer to the bright sunlight filtering through the tempered pane -- and the breath she didn't know she'd been holding came out in a light sigh. There was little use in wasting the sun and her time all at once, was there? _No, _she reasoned with herself, _there isn't. But you have work to do._ Her mind passed over the prospect. _...yes, you have work to do. Later._

The sun warmed her as she stepped from the dormitory doors, welcome and creeping along her skin and staving off the dull chill of the air conditioning from indoors. If there was one thing to accredit to the Academia, it was that the majority of the students were happy no matter what they were doing -- regardless of whether or not they were procrastinating, like Asuka had become so inclined to do. The dull grinding click of her uniform boots became background and further comforting as she walked the pathway that wound out and around the girls' dormitories, watching the dull color of the sidewalk disappear under the suddenly colorful blue of her shoes. What on Earth -- or in Hell for that matter -- had suddenly possessed her to shirk her obligations and go for a walk? Admittedly she had all night to do it, and sure, it was only early afternoon, but...it wasn't normal. Something black and hard -- but too small to be a wall, goodness no -- blocked her path, and she smacked into it. She felt two hands steady her, firm on the uppers of her arms and slightly warmer than the sunlight beating on her, and looked up.

Manjoume Jun quirked a brow, head pulled back enough to see her clearly. No, certainly not a wall at all, but still in black and standing in direct sunlight. Asuka was forced to wonder at his perseverance at times, wearing all that dark color in warm weather and direct sunlight. But now wasn't the time to think fashion -- though Momoe and Junko might have loved that, she must remember never to tell them -- now was the time to wonder how in heaven's name she hadn't noticed a person standing in the middle of the sidewalk. How distracted _was_ she, anyway? "Tenjoin-kun," she heard him say tentatively, and she snapped back to attention.

"Manjoume-kun," she had to half-laugh at herself, how could she be so ill attentive? "I -- are you alright? I probably should have been paying attention to where I was going."

"That's precisely what I was thinking," he said, still eyeing her. He realized with a sudden internal jolt he was still holding onto her arms and let them drop, however hesitantly, to his sides. "You seemed distracted by something."

"Oh, it's probably...nothing." She blinked once, twice, fought the urge to outwardly shake her head. There was something...different about Jun today, wasn't there? "...Manjoume-kun..."

"Yes?" He waited a space of heartbeats for her to answer, and when it came -- "Nothing." -- he frowned. "Are you sure."

Asuka scowled up at him. "Yes, when I say nothing I mean nothing!"

Manjoume raised his hands defensively. "You're right, of course, Tenjoin-kun."

"Of course I am." She crossed her arms, further enhancing her defiance -- well, her defiance and a few other choice things, which spurred one of those furtive sidelong glances Manjoume tended to pull whenever she tried to be remotely bellicose with him. Little did Asuka herself realize, it wasn't her onset that was making him glance away -- rather her _assets_, but he would of course never come out and tell her so.

Well. At least not in _this_ lifetime. "So you still haven't told me how you managed to --"

"-- to miss someone standing in the sidewalk, believe me when I figure that out you'll be the first to know."

He couldn't help it, he had to chuckle at it. "You and your brother are alike, sometimes."

Asuka reached over and hit him, hard enough to mean business, but not to cause any real damage -- regardless of his attitude, Jun was still a friend. "If you want to live you'll never utter those words again."

Manjoume chuckled again. "Yes, Tenjoin-kun."

Asuka hadn't even realized they'd started walking -- where on Earth was her brain, certainly it wasn't here -- when she realized she was halfway back the way she'd come already. She risked a look over at her for-now companion, thankful he seemed to be otherwise engaged in staring at whatever else happened to appear interesting (of course Manjoume knew better, and that there really were few things more interesting than Asuka was, but once again -- why would he ever admit that). Really, when the light started to fade outside he really didn't...look so bad, she started to see why girls had fawned over him -- well, before he left the Academia, that is. She had no idea about now, and if they did it was likely because of his money, but...yes, she could definitely see it.

_Woah._ Train of thought brought to a screeching halt, she looked away, feeling her face heat up somewhat. Thankfully the tint of the sun going down would hide it, at least mostly; she would have no trouble explaining it away were he to ask. _Stop, rewind, play that back one more time. Did I just think that? I mean did I just really and seriously think...that, about...him?_

"Tenjoin-kun." She didn't answer, he frowned, She was staring very hard at the door to the dormitory, and it was starting to worry him. Tentatively, he reached up and put a hand on her shoulder, jarring her slightly. "Oi, Tenjoin-kun."

"Oh, God. What?" She looked up at him, eyes slightly wide.

"Are you...absolutely sure you're alright?"

Asuka nodded, brushing his hand away gently -- probably more gently than she would have under less brain-breaking circumstances -- and swallowing hard enough to recognize the dry feeling in her throat. "I'm sure I'll be fine, really. I'm just a little out of it, this afternoon."

Manjoume dropped his hand and backed up a step. "Get some rest, Tenjoin-kun."

She nodded absently and pushed through the doors, blindly walked to her room. Her heart was thudding sporadically against her ribcage, that wasn't normal at all. Realizing with another little inward jolt that she was already safely on the other side of her dormitory's door, she slid down to sit on the all-too-plush carpet -- she had always thought it just that, too ritzy, this was school not the Hilton. She reached down and fingered it idly.

A small sigh. "I," she spoke to no one in particular, "need a bath."

_Yes,_ she thought, a bath. _Baths are great places to think._


End file.
